Painting From Photographs

Painting from photographs and sketches - the artists studio

Some artists can say that it is not wise to use photographs as reference material for your paintings, but many artists find it a valuable resource for further use in creating their original works.

There are a few golden rules to consider when using photos as reference when working on your art back to your studio:

• It is best never to slavishly copy a photo, photos flatten the point of view, and the darker areas if you can not see the detail
• The photographs are covered by copyright in order to monitor copy someone else's photo is not advised, always use your own
• You can rearrange the elements and composition that suits you, ie if you are a movement of vessels around marine paint, if you want to make a picture sunset but the sun does not move in the right place and this leads to a better composition, painting or numbers of people in your environment to create better opportunities
• Change the colors, you do not need to stick to the colors of the photo, use your imagination and choose an interesting combination of colors of the scene
• You can lose some wonderful colors of nature, the nuances and shades of a photo, where on the site make a small square swatch of oils, acrylics, watercolors, pastels or colored pencils to show different shades of colors that make up the scene, create a reference to the dark midtones and light values for each color of your paint

The photos are a very useful addition to your reference directory for your art, used by painters of all levels, in addition to the sketches can be very useful to quickly get a scene from different angles, and show the shape of objects, monuments, etc. to refer to later on the back of your studio.

There is nothing better than spending a day getting to know the stage, soaking in the atmosphere of the site chosen, knowing the place before the brush, you can make sketches or studies small in oil, acrylic, watercolor, charcoal or color, on small stretched canvases, watercolor paper, canvas board or wood panel, or simply use your sketchbook.

Take your camera to quickly capture the scene before returning to the studio to work on large canvases or more works on paper, incorporating your small sketches and painted studies in work, happy painting!